Arena Profile: Del. Nancy Guthrie

Nancy Guthrie was reelected on Nov. 2, 2010 to serve a third term in the West Virginia House of Delegates. She was first elected in 2006.

Delegate Guthrie serves on the House Finance Committee. She was named Chair of the House Select Committee on Stimulus Utilization in 2009. Delegate Guthrie also serves as Vice-Chair of the Commission on Interstate Cooperation, and is a member of Constitutional Revision, the Committee on Industry & Labor/Economic Development & Small Business, the Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Natural Resources.

Delegate Guthrie owns and operates Capitol City Communications, a home-based public, media and government relations company launched in 1996. Guthrie also served as State Liaison to the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd from 1983-1992. Her background also includes a private sector position in public and government relations, management service with the U.S. Forest Service, and as a bureau chief and television reporter.

Delegate Guthrie is married to George Guthrie, a partner in the law firm of Allen Guthrie & Thomas. They live in Kanawha City and share their home with their Bernese Mountain Dogs – Lilly “Ledbetter”, Louie, and Bernie Guthrie.

Del. Nancy Guthrie's Recent Discussions

Open Mike, Oct. 19-21

The Role Of The Rich In Election Day

The greatest underestimation of this election is the length to which people like Mitt Romney are willing to go to protect their fortunes.

Like Charlton Heston, we'll have to pry it from their "cold, dead, fingers". We commoners believe they've become tax avoidaholics who are in dire need of a serious American intervention followed by a strict twelve step program. Ninety meetings in 90 days.

Think about the expense and trouble they've gone to just to avoid paying a proportionate share of taxes on the incomes they've earned from this great system of democracy we share. These patriots have spent obscene amounts of money on negative political advertising, tried to squash the right of voters to vote in state after state, threatened employees with their jobs if they don't vote the way the boss tells them to vote, and destroyed new voter registrations of the opposing party. When you look at the totality of their combined cash and conspiracies, in the long run wouldn't it have been cheaper to pony up with the rest of us Americans to pay their fair share?

It used to be corporations accounted for about 30 percent of all federal revenue collected. It's now down to nine percent. Used to be personal income taxes imposed on those who benefited most from the American system of capitalism was over 70 percent. Now, those who have it, hide it - many times in offshore and onshore tax havens. Conservative estimates suggest $21-32 trillion is being hoarded, far more than our current deficit. And the more they are allowed to hoard and hide rather than invest in the country that made them wealthy, the longer it will take for our economy to bounce back.

If President Obama closes the deal in the remaining days of the campaign we still have a chance to change these tax avoidaholics into productive and rehabilitated members of our society. Here's hoping for change!

Only time will tell if irreparable damage has been done but the comments to me were definitely not taken out of context by Democrats or any other party.

In fact, the Romney "binder" comment struck me as a stark reminder of the insensitivity that still exists in the struggle for women's equality. Men never had to fight for the right to vote. Men never had to fight for the right to have the last say on their right to privacy, protection and coverage respecting reproductive health. Men never had to fight for the right to be paid the same as other men doing the same job.

In his awkward attempt to connect with women voters, Romney reminded me just how deaf he is to the struggles for equality that still remain. Any attempt to dismiss or marginalize its importance is a disservice to all women.

The only conspiracy of note is the one they created and got caught bragging about - suppressing the vote in key states to deny millions of Americans their rights. Most reasonable Republicans I talk to seem embarrassed by their own party and the new GOP mantra - if you can't beat them fairly, steal it from them.

I sense great fatigue with the never ending negativity, even in my state of West Virginia. So, we'll see on Election Day how this all turns out.

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